Ohio Lawmakers Reinstate Voucher Program

Students attending private schools through the Cleveland voucher
program should be able to start the new school year seamlessly, thanks
to state lawmakers' resuscitation of the program just weeks after the
Ohio Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

Signing a two-year, $17.17 billion education budget on June 29, Ohio
Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, apparently ensured that all 3,700 students
enrolled in the voucher program could return to private or parochial
schools in the fall.

A provision in an earlier version of the education budget would have
limited the program to students in grades K-5--a plan that, had it been
included in the final budget, would have left 280 students without
vouchers to attend the 6th grade.

Mr. Taft "thinks we need to continue the experiment and evaluate
it," said Scott Milburn, a spokesman for the governor. "He sees it as
an experiment, but one that's worthwhile. He doesn't think it should
have been completely dissolved on a technicality."

That "technicality" is what turned the state supreme court against
the voucher plan. On May 27, the court found that lawmakers ignored
legislative procedures mandated by the state constitution when they
created the state-financed voucher program through a provision in the
1995 state budget rather than through separate legislation on the plan.
("Ohio Court Issues Mixed Verdict on
Voucher Program," June 2, 1999.)

Opponents Rallying

Late last month, legislators opted to include language reinstating
the voucher program in the education budget. Because the program was
reinstated through a budget package geared specifically to education,
rather than one covering all state functions, voucher supporters say it
now passes constitutional muster. They also call the court ruling a
substantive victory because the justices rejected arguments that the
program violated federal and state prohibitions on government support
for religion.

Despite the reinstatement of the program, however, two schools
created to receive students with vouchers shut down last month. School
leaders say they will be reorganized as charter schools.

Meanwhile, organizations that oppose vouchers say they are plotting
their next move.

Public school advocates could pursue several different legal avenues
in their continuing fight against the Cleveland program, said Elliot
Mincberg, the legal director for the Washington-based People for the
American Way Foundation.

They may argue that the legislature's response still failed to meet
the "single subject" guidelines laid out in the recent state court
decision, he said. Or, he added, they may appeal the decision to the
U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Ohio court was wrong to find that
the Cleveland program did not violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on a
government establishment of religion.

Either way, "I would think something will be filed within the next
month," Mr. Mincberg said. "We were extremely disappointed by the state
supreme court's analysis of the federal church-state issue. Some people
may do a state claim, while others do a federal claim."

Teacher Controversy

Adding to the continued debate over publicly financed vouchers,
The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland reported earlier this
month that one of the schools currently receiving state vouchers
employs a number of unlicensed teachers, including one convicted
murderer. The school, called the Islamic Academy School of Arts and
Sciences, is one of five schools in the voucher program that have have
not yet been officially approved, or "chartered," by the state.

"There is no oversight of these schools," said Ronald Marec, the
president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, a state affiliate of the
American Federation of Teachers. "If this story had come out at the
time vouchers were being debated in the legislature, we may have had
different results."

Assistant State Superintendent of Public Instruction Steven M.
Puckett said that if the Islamic School of Arts and Sciences has not
completed its application for a state charter by the end of the summer,
it will no longer be eligible to receive the state vouchers. The other
four unchartered schools in the 59-school program have 12 months to
complete the charter application process.

State guidelines ensure that those schools that receive such
charters meet minimum requirements for teacher licensing and building
safety, Mr. Puckett said. That process is in no way related to public
charter schools, which are distinct from the private schools that
accept vouchers.

In addition, Mr. Puckett said, he has decided not to allow any new
private or parochial schools into the voucher program unless they are
approved by the state.

"It won't happen again," Mr. Puckett said of the situation with the
Islamic School. "It's unfortunate because, by and large, these schools
are chartered and they are following strict guidelines."

School Choice: The Cultural Logic of Families, the Political
Rationality of Institutions, is a compilation of research from nine
different reports on school choice, including an introduction and
conclusion by Harvard professors Richard Elmore, Gary Orfield, and
Bruce Fuller. In "Response
to a Harvard Study on School Choice: Is It a Study at All?," read
the reactions of several education experts to a draft of the report.
From the Pioneer
Institute, November 1995.

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